AFCON
THE GAMBIA ARE AFCON DEBUTANTS!
It is jubilation galore in the city of Banjul as Gambia’s Scorpions qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time ever after a slim 1-0 victory over Angola in Banjul on Thursday.
The victory sees Gambia move to 10 points with one round of matches left.
Assan Ceesay scored the lone goal for the Gambians in the 62nd minute to give the Gambians the vital victory and another feather to their footballing caps after the performance of their Under-20 team in Mauritania.
Meanwhile, Gabon have also booked a ticket to Gabon after a well worked 3-0 victory over DR Congo at the Stade de la Renovation de Franceville. Aaron Boupendza, Denis Bouanga and skipper Pierre Emerick Aubameyang scored the goals for The Panthers.
Gabon duly went to the break one goal up after dominating play in the opening 45 minutes and creating most of the scoring chances. Boupendza broke the deadlock for the Gabonese with their first shot on target.
They had been knocking on the DR Congo door from the onset, trying to get that vital goal that would spur them in.
In the eight minute, Didier Ndong struck a brilliant shot from the edge of the area that went just wide off target, with the Congolese defense caught flat out.
They had another chance two minutes later when Pierre Emerick Aubameyang did well to cut back a cross from the right, but Denis Bouanga’s low shot hit the outside of the post.
Bouanga, Aubameyang and Mario Lemina were causing all sorts of problems for the DR Congo backline, but that vital goal just never came through.
DR Congo came stronger in the second half as they knew getting a point in the tie will give them a chance in the final game of the group phase.
They had a chance four minutes after the break, but Ben Malango’s header from a Jordan Botaka cross went over.
They were however deflated in the 72nd minute when Bouanga broke the offside trap off an Aubameyang pass before hitting low past the keeper.
Aubameyang had a goal for himself four minutes to the final whistle to seal Gabon’s place in Cameroon.
-CAF
The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) has sacked its Serbian coach, Milutin Sredojević who is popularly known as Micho.
This is coming ahead of Libya’s back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations clashes with Nigeria next month.
Paradoxically, Sports Village Square gathered that the coach’s contract was only recently renewed for six months before the axe fell on the Serbian.
His sack was precipitated by the results obtained in their teo matches of the AFCON qualifiers.
Libya drew 1-1 with Rwanda at home and lost 2-1 away to Benin Republic despite beig a goal up at half time.
The Libyan side, Mediterranean Knights are due to play against the Nigeria Super Eagles in Uyo on 6 October while the return leg holds on 14 October at the 11 July Stadium in Tripoli.
According to information Sports Village Square gathered from Tripoli, the Mediterranean Knights’ coach, Micho led the Libyan national team to win nine matches since taking over in October of last year, he failed to build a strong team due to his poor choices.
He also took a risk with the footballers chosen in the AFCON qualifiers, and the result was shocking to the Libyan sports audience.
According to sources close to the Libyan Football Federation, there is a strong tendency to sign a national coach to lead the Libyan team during the remaining qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations.
CAF President Patrice Motsepe has lashed out at Ghana and some other African countries whose home grounds were recently banned from hosting CAF matches owing to inadequate facilities. He made the remarks in Nairobi, Kenya during a press conference,
After the MatchDay 2 of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, CAF ruled Ghana’s Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi as being inadequate to host international matches. Being the only approved ground in the country, Ghana will now look towards either Cote d’Ivoire or Togo for their remaining home matches of the Afcon qualifiers.
Other African countries without approved home grounds are: Djibouti, Chad, Niger, Eritrea, Gabon, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, São Tomé and Burundi.
Motsepe voiced his frustration over the recurring issue of nations being unable to host home games.
“Nothing frustrates me more than a national team or club side having to play home matches outside,” he stated.
He stressed the significance of playing in front of home fans, adding, “You can’t grow football if the national teams or club sides aren’t playing in front of their home fans.”
Motsepe reiterated CAF’s commitment to working with countries to ensure they have at least one suitable stadium to host international fixtures.
“Our conversations in every country are to make sure there is at least one stadium capable of hosting a CAF category C game,” he emphasized.
The on-going CAF AFCON Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Coaches Symposium in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire has brought together, the last three coaches that handled the Nigeria national football team.
Gernot Rohr, Jose Peseiro and Austin Eguavoen are part of the the elite coaches currently gathered in Abidjan.
Gernot Rohr whose tenure of 5 years and 55 matches is the longest ever by any coach in Nigeria, is currently handling Nigeria’s Africa Cupof Nations and World Cup qualifying rivals, Benin Republic. He was succeeded in the interim by Austin Eguavoen who is currently having another interim stint.
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